Very near

Friday was a great day and full of expectation. The scaffolding which had been erected in two places around the house was to be finally dismantled and the new carpet for the refurbished bedroom was to be laid down during the afternoon. It was a cold day, overcast and threatening rain. The guys arrived early and got stuck straight into removing the scaffolding over the garage at the side of the house whilst I made them each a drink of coffee. They seem to run on coffee! I had a few minor things to attend to in the meantime. It took them about three hours to dismantle most of the scaffolding then left to go for lunch. They returned shortly after lunch to finish the job but again they had to stop so that they could empty the now filled wagon. There was a small amount of scaffolding left standing in the garden which they said they would collect the next day, that is Saturday because there was little time left to do it then. Soon after one o’clock I received a call from the carpet fitters alerting me to their imminent arrival. I left them to get on with the job and soon enough they were done. I took ‘Robbie’ the robot vacuum cleaner and let him make a start in cleaning off the carpet debris whilst I used the mains-connected vacuum cleaner. I had to empty both their containers a few times before the carpet was thoroughly cleaned.

You might think the carpet fitters would do that before signing the work off but I have never known any of them to do that. E came up later to have a look and to help hang the curtains (drapes). The curtains had been removed weeks ago before the refurbishment began and had then been dry cleaned but one of them required a little stitching before it could be hung. E began to do that but it was getting too late in the day and she left off finishing it until the next day. Now we are waiting for the new bed to arrive this coming Thursday. When the guys had left the site with the scaffolding I got up onto the garage roof to sweep it up and collected a bucket of debris. I had discovered two places inside the garage where rain has been seeping in so I sealed one small hole with flashband which will cure that problem but the other leak was larger and will require more drastic work to be done. In the interim I have covered the area with a heavy-duty plastic sheet to allow it to dry out and when the weather is warmer it will be repaired properly. It never ends does it? I was just thinking how bored I would be if there were no problems to sort out.